Six weeks after Trump told a crowd of U.S. Marines at Miramar Air Station in San Diego of a proposal to expand the military's reach into space - the President is at it again; teasing the idea of a space force to a White House crowd on Tuesday.
Trump made the comments while presenting the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy to the Army football team for its victory over both the Navy and Air Force last year.
"We're actually thinking of a sixth [military branch] — and that would be the Space Force," said Trump, after naming off the existing military branches. "Does that make sense? Because we are getting very big in space, both militarily and for other reasons and we are seriously thinking of the Space Force."
Trump to the Army football team: "You will be part of the 5 proud branches of the U.S. armed forces -- Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force & the Coast Guard. We're actually thinking of a 6th -- the Space Force. Does that make sense?.... We're getting very big in space." pic.twitter.com/cZNgJeX1F1
A few of those in attendance standing behind Trump seemed to have issues taking the idea seriously:
The looks on the faces of these Army football players when Donald Trump starts talking about the "Space Force" again have me dying pic.twitter.com/bhese16qds
When Trump floated the idea to Marines at Miramar Air Station in March, he said We are finally going to lead again,” Trump said. “You see what’s happening. You see the rockets going up left and right. You haven’t seen that in a long time. Very soon we’re going to Mars. You wouldn’t have been going to Mars if my opponent won. That I can tell you. You wouldn’t even be thinking about it. You wouldn’t be thinking about it,” he added.
The President also said we're going to Mars "very soon."
“My new national strategy for space recognizes that space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air, and sea. We may even have a space force,” Trump revealed.
“We have the air force. We will have a space force. We have the Army, Navy. I was saying at the other day because we are doing a tremendous amount of work in space. I said maybe we need a new force. We’ll call it the space force, and I was not really serious and that I thought what a great idea, maybe we’ll have to do that. That could happen. That could be the big breaking story,” said Trump.
Did someone say Space Force? pic.twitter.com/I5S5z9qmgM...